On 27 June, 2015 a dust fire ignited at the Formosa Fun Coast water park during a ‘colour powder party’, after staff had launched coloured corn starch powder at a crowd of people who were attending the party.
Clouds of corn starch powder ignited in a fireball, killing 15 and injuring hundreds (AFP via Getty Images)
Air blowers and compressed gas canisters were used to keep the cloud of coloured powder above the heads of the revellers, but at around 8:30pm, a sudden explosion of flame ignited some of the powder and a large fireball engulfed the stage.
The flames spread among the powder, including along the ground where people were standing, and hundreds of people suffered burns as a result of the unexpected combustion.
The fireball did not last long and was soon extinguished, but 15 people ended up dying from the disaster.
When something like corn starch is packed together in one place and there’s a lot of heat, it can catch fire, and the water park event had brought three tonnes of the stuff to spray onto concert-goers from the stage.
Investigations into the disaster tried to determine exactly how the fire started and ignited the clouds of powder, with firefighters suggesting that hot stage lights may have lit the initial spark.
The water park was closed down in the aftermath of the disaster, and event organiser, Lu Chung-chi, was charged with negligence and found guilty. In 2018, he was sentenced to five years in prison.
The park has been closed down since then and is now an abandoned site, though when an explorer called Josh showed up to try and poke around the site, he found that there was some security still in place to stop people from picking around the remains.
The YouTuber found that, in the years since the water park closed, nature had started to take back the site and he said that striding through the abandoned location was an ‘eerie’ experience.
The water park closed down after the firey explosion, but it’s still standing (AFP via Getty Images)
He also discovered a pile of old dining tables all stacked in one spot, which he described as a ‘table graveyard’ that needed to be clambered over.
Everywhere he looked there was peeling paint and attractions overgrown with nature as the water slides showed clear signs of decay in the years they had sat idle.
Despite the water park being abandoned, the YouTuber did get on some of the slides and walk down the giant pipes, though there were some rides he didn’t want to test his luck on.
It’s certainly not the only theme park which has been abandoned to the ravages of time and nature, there are a number of decaying sites which closed their doors one day never to reopen.
The rides and attractions are still there but the place is deserted and everything is infected with that sense of emptiness that only an abandoned location that once welcomed large amounts of people can have.
